


Opening Doors

by okeydokey (LilMissNerdfighter)



Category: Frozen (2013), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Can imply Jack/Elsa, Can imply Jack/Rapunzel, Elsa is taking isolation seriously, Gen, Jack can inexplicably be seen, Jack's breaking and entering, Or nothing, Rapunzel is mentioned once because author has issues not doing it, Read it however you want to, mild spoilers for both films
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-14
Updated: 2013-12-14
Packaged: 2018-01-04 15:37:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1082750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilMissNerdfighter/pseuds/okeydokey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It turns out that Elsa's ice palace isn't quite as intruder-proof as she'd have liked.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Opening Doors

Ice palaces were all well and good but they sure did take a lot of time to build, Elsa decided, quietly building another staircase reaching up into the sky. Her determination had fuelled her as she had created the lower levels, but her progress had slowed considerably the longer she had been working. She desperately wanted to finish it, to have something of her own; proof that her gift could do good. The snow fluttered in through the gap in the ceiling where the final turret was to be placed. Elsa tilted her head up and let it brush against her face, the ice familiar and comforting. She thought of the snowman she’d made on the trip up the mountain and almost wished she’d brought him with her. A snowy friend for an ice queen. Shaking her head, Elsa dismissed the foolish wish. She was better off alone, it was safer that way. For both herself and others. She didn’t need anyone, anyway. 

Elsa was just working on a new snowflake pattern on the final staircase when she heard a rather loud male cough from behind her. Whirling around, she instinctively shot a stream of ice towards the intruder. He gave a yell of surprise, but instead of freezing into a statue, he used a gnarled stick to deflect it. The wave neatly swept out of a gap in the wall leaving the room looking as though nothing had happened. Elsa watched in astonishment, swallowing the thousands of apologies she had been about to shower upon the boy. He was completely unscathed and looked as though having a torrent of ice hurled at him was nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, he looked completely at home (which was more than slightly concerning as this wasn’t even Elsa’s home yet, not really). Leaning against the wall, he twirled his staff in his hand letting a shower of snowflakes float out of the end. Elsa watched him, noting his bare feet and almost white hair, unabashed. Anna was the shy one, not her. Sure she’d been a bit more… reserved recently. But that had been fear; she had no reason to hide anymore.

‘Do I know you?’ Elsa demanded, watching as the boy ambled across the room and began to inspect her gleaming windowsills. Lazily dragging his fingers across the sill, he turned to face her. A smirk played across his lips, telling her that she mightn’t have known who he was but he sure as hell knew who she was.

‘Jack, Jack Frost, at your service.’ Jack bowed deeply, the effect ruined by the wink that followed. 

‘And you’re here because..?’ Elsa asked, thoroughly unimpressed. She wondered if it what be too conspicuous to slice a trapdoor beneath Jack’s feet to get rid of him. That staff would probably do   
something to cushion his fall. 

‘Rapunzel sent me to check that you were alright-that girl cares too much. But I have to admit, I was intrigued.’ Jack tilted his head slightly to the left, giving her a once-over, as if trying to solve a particularly tricky puzzle. Elsa tried to remember if she’d ever actually met anyone called Rapunzel, and after a moment an image of a laughing princess chatting to Anna about a lizard or something sprung into her mind. Elsa had been glad that Anna was making friends, but, unfortunately for Elsa, it seemed that her new friend was the worrying kind. Jack continued on, oblivious to Elsa’s momentary confusion. ‘Most people run from confinement, fight to be seen and heard, but you isolated yourself. You hid your gift- and it is a gift; people have died for less.’

Elsa began to laugh, figuring that he was joking. Her powers were bad, she was making the best of an awful situation and sure she didn’t mind the cold but who’d choose this life? And yet, Jack let out a dry laugh, his expression grim. Elsa couldn’t see the flicker of amusement anymore, and she suddenly began to wonder if there actually were people who had found some good in the ice prison that accompanied her powers. Had Jack; is that what he was saying? Then again, he was clearly alive and breathing and corpses didn’t tend to do that. 

Jack seemed to shake off whatever plagued him, striding forward, staring intently at her breath leaving a ghostly trail in the air. Elsa quickly fashioned a chair, and gestured for him to sit. If he was going to lecture on the value of her powers then maybe she could finally use some of the manners her parents had tried so hard to instil in her. She wondered if they’d be proud of her or if they’d, more likely, shake their heads and ask her how she’d let everything spiral out of control. Elsa quickly dismissed the train of thought, she’d had three years to dwell on that and now was not the time for self-pity. 

‘You’re clearly not dead,’ Jack stated plainly, taking a seat in the proffered chair. ‘So, how did you get your powers?’

Elsa raised an eyebrow, waiting for the punchline. When none came, she did her best to answer seriously. The answer seemed important to the intruder, and she really had nothing better to do. She could start her isolation again tomorrow; it wasn’t as if she could hurt Jack anyway. Ice owned him as much as it controlled her. ‘I was born like this. And yes, I’m the first in my family to be born with magic.’

‘Are you sure-‘Jack began, but Elsa cut him off the moment she knew what he was going to ask.

‘Yes.’ Elsa snapped. ‘And my sister doesn’t have this curse either. It’s just me.’

Jack gave her another curious look. Elsa was beginning to resent those glances; they chilled her more than ice ever had. It seemed like Jack could see right into her soul and she wasn’t the romantic- that was Anna- so it was just downright creepy. 

‘What?’ She growled. ‘Am I supposed to ask how you got your ‘gift’ so you can give me some sob story about who you lost in order to get your powers, and then realise that really I’m lucky and use the ice to help starving orphans or something? Because if you even try I will show you just how cold ice can be. I would rather be alone and be myself than go back there and be monitored for the rest of my life. Don’t you even dare try, Jack Frost.’

Jack looked vaguely uncomfortable, his eyes dropping to his staff. He shifted it from one hand to the other, weighing it up, covering the floor around him in a new sheet of ice. She’d clearly foiled his plan to come in as the hero on the white horse and save the damsel from making a terrible mistake and becoming corrupted. Elsa vaguely fantasied about snapping the stick in two and throwing Jack out into the snow. Let him find the good in her gift then. 

‘I lost my sister.’ Jack informed her, his voice cool, when he finally met her eyes again. Lingering sorrow was still visible in his eyes, making Elsa recoil slightly. She had been mostly joking about what his powers, that staff, had cost him. But his sister. What had he done, how did a strip of wood equate to a life? ‘We were ice-skating and the ice cracked.’ Jack stopped, resting his forehead against the cool stick. Elsa began to fill in the blanks, coming to her own conclusions about why exactly he’d been so eager to help Rapunzel find her new friend’s sister. She supposed that in his mind, even a dangerous sister was better than a dead one. Elsa found herself agreeing. 

‘I saved her, of course.’ Jack continued, running a nervous hand through his hair. ‘‘I kind of knew I wouldn’t survive. And obviously I didn’t, but it was the only thing I could do. You know how it is.’ Jack shot her a pleading look and Elsa nodded readily, brows furrowing in confusion. How had he not survived? ‘When the Man in the Moon saved me, it was the worst hell imaginable. Fucking freezing, invisible and alive a couple of decades after my sister had died of old age. But I survived, caused mischief for a century or two, and now I have a family of sorts and people more or less see me.’ Elsa tried to resume her cynical mind-set but something inside her had thawed slightly.

‘How did your gift help you in any way?’ Elsa asked, mustering up as much sarcasm as she could manage. She was desperately fighting to keep genuine curiosity from infiltrating her voice. 

‘People can only see me if they believe in me- it’s a long story- and the random snow days helped, not only kill time, but kept me in the backs of kids’ minds, until they all started to believe again.’ Jack grinned, conjuring up a snowball as if to prove his point. Elsa ducked as he lobbed it at her head. ‘Pay back!’

Elsa giggled before clamping her hand over her mouth. She tried to remind herself that she was supposed to be cutting people out, but the memo didn’t stick. ‘So your powers didn’t really help?’  
Jack cocked his head to one side, considering the question. ‘No. Umm, I guess not much?’

‘Your point, then?’ Elsa eyed him incredulously, and what little warmth Jack could muster coloured his cheeks.

‘My point,’ Jack spoke slowly, forming his argument second by second. ‘ Is that shutting people out might be easier, but family and friends are the most important things you can have. Elsa, don’t shut Anna out for her own safety. She’s not going to break like the stem of a stupid golden flower.’ Jack laughed what seemed like his own private joke, and Elsa joined in. It felt so good to laugh. ‘And if you can’t do that right now, at least make friends with people you aren’t worried about hurting.’

‘Like you?’ Elsa interjected. Jack mulled that over, before nodding. 

‘Yeah, like me for a start- and, you know, there are people like you, like us. With powers or running from something. You don’t have to be alone.’ Jack told her, with a kind smile, so unlike his other expressions and yet fitting him perfectly. He rose to his feet, and bowed again, almost sincerely this time.

Elsa stood in quiet contemplation as he winked again. She shook her head in joking disbelief. ‘I’ll think about it.’ 

‘That’s all I’m asking.’ Jack grinned at her, and she smiled back. Jack picked up his staff, and tossed it out the window before jumping after it. It caught on a gust of wind, and he hovered there for a moment before offering her a mock salute. ‘See you around, Elsa.’

Elsa watched him disappear out of her ice palace, wondering if it really was possible to let people in without hurting them. Could she really be herself and still be close to Anna? Was Jack really right when he said she wasn’t alone in her powers? 

The cold had never bothered Anna anyway, Elsa remembered, finishing her turret. If Anna ever found her she’d let her in, Elsa smiled softly.

It was time to open some doors.


End file.
